Shotgun barrel



July 25, 1939. H. FLEMING 2,167,173

SHOTGUN BARREL Filed March 29, 1937 Flm. 6

INVENTOR. Harvey Hem/77g Patented July 25, 1939 SHOTGUN BARREL Harvey Fleming, San Diego, Calif.

Application March 29,

1 Claim.

My invention relates to a shotgun barrel. It is well known that the conventional shotgun barrel is sometimes provided with a choke; that is, the diameter of the barrel at the muzzle end is less than at the breach or cartridge receiving end,

and the inner side of the barrel is circular in form at the muzzle end. This provides a pattern of the scattered shot substantially circular. The objects of my invention are:

First, to provide a shotgun barrel, the inner wall at the muzzle end of which is so shaped and arranged so that the shot issuing from the muzzle of the barrel will scatter to form a pattern other than in circular form so that if the tendency is to shoot too high, the barrel may be constructed to scatter some of the shot upwardly, or if the tendency is to shoot too low, the barrel can be shaped and arranged to scatter the shot downwardly;

Sec-nd, to provide a gun barrel of this class, by the use of which shot may be made to scatter outwardly from the main circular pattern in any direction by predetermined shaping of the barrel at the muzzle;

Third, to provide a shotgun barrel of this class, by the use of which accuracy in shooting may be increased by predetermined shaping of the barrel where the person shooting has a tendency to shoot too high or too low or to either side;

Fourth, to provide a shotgun barrel of this class in which. varying patterns of shot issuing from the muzzle of the barrel may be made as desired by predetermined shaping and arranging the barrel at the muzzle end; and

Fifth, to provide a shotgun barrel of this class which is very simple and economical of construction and efficient in its action.

With these and other objects in View as will appear hereinafter, my invention consists of certain novel features of construction, combination, and arrangement of parts and portions as will be hereinafter described in detail and particularly set forth in the appended claim, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and to the characters of reference thereon which form a part of the application in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a gun barrel with a conventional choke and showing the muzzle constructed tending to scatter the shot downwardly from the normal circular pattern; Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse sectional view of a barrel at the muzzle shaped and arranged to scatter the shot upwardly from the normal circular pattern; Fig. 3 is an enlarged transverse sectional view of the gun barrel shown 1937, Serial No. 133,563

shaped and arranged to scatter the shot downwardly from the normal circular pattern; Fig. 4 is a similar View showing the gun barrel at the muzzle shaped and arranged to scatter the shot laterally to the right of the normal circular pattern; Fig. 5 is a similar view showing the barrel shaped and arranged at the muzzle to scatter the shot laterally to the left of the normally circular pattern; Fig. 6 is a similar view showing the barrel shaped and arranged to scatter the shot both upwardly and downwardly from the normally circular pattern; Fig. 7 is a similar view showing the gun barrel shaped and arranged at the muzzle to scatter the shot to both the right and left of the normal circular pattern; Fig. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of the gun barrel at the muzzle taken from the line 8-8 of Fig. '7, and Fig. 9 is a similar View taken from the line 9-9 of Fig. 3.

Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts and portions throughout the several views of the drawing.

The gun barrel I may be of any conventional type except that it is provided at the muzzle end with an outwardly converging circular portion 2 which is positioned as shown in Figs. 1, 3, and 9 of the drawing at the lower side of the barrel in its normal shooting position. This particular shape and arrangement is for the purpose of scattering the shot downwardly to form a pattern of the scattered shot slightly downwardly from the normal circular pattern for the purpose of providing more accuracyin shooting for one tending to shoot too high. While this outwardly diverging portion may be positioned on the upper side of the barrel at the muzzle designated 3 as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawing, in which case the shot will be scattered upwardly to follow the form of the pattern of the muzzle of the barrel to provide greater accuracy to one tending to shoot too low. This outwardly converging portion may be positioned, however, to the right of the normal circular barrel as shown by 4 in Fig. 4 of the drawing tending to increase the accuracy by one tending to shoot to the left, while a similar arrangement at the opposite side, designated 5 is shown in Fig. 5 for those tending to shoot to the right, while in Fig. 6 the outwardly diverging enlarged portion is at both the upper and lower sides as shown in Fig. 6 and in Fig. 7 the enlarged converging portions are shown at both the right and. left of the barrel at the muzzle. Thus various barrels may be constructed with this enlarged outwardly converging portion for the provision of barrels for those who have a claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A shotgun barrel having a circular bore for the major portion of its length from the breech and a minor portion from thereon in which the cross sectional contour of the bore at all points is generally circular with a curved outwardly bulged portion on a part only of said minor circular contour portion extending from a maximum at the muzzle to and gradually tapering and merging into the circular contour as said major portion of the bore is approached.

HARVEY FLEMING. 

